Asopus
Encyclopedia
Asopus or Asôpos is the name of four different river
s in Greece
and one in Turkey
. In Greek mythology
, it was the name of the gods
of those rivers.
daughter of river Ladon) or their father Asopus must have been mortal, or both of them.
Apollodorus
(3.12.6) informs that the river Asopus was a son of Oceanus
and Tethys
or according to Acusilaus
of Poseidon
by Pero
(otherwise unknown to us) or according to yet others of Zeus
by Eurynome
, not making it clear whether he knows there is more than one river named Asopus.
Oroe, a tributary river of Boeotian Asopus is called by Herodotus
(9.51.2) and Pausanias (9.4.4) daughter of Asopus. Pausanias says that the Boeotian city of Thespiae was either named from Thespia daughter of Asopus or from Thespius, a descendant of Erechtheus
who came there from Athens
. This Thespius is otherwise unknown to us. Finally Antiope
mother of Amphion and Zethus
by Zeus is sometimes a daughter of Asopus.
Statius
' Thebaid tells of the warrior Hypseus, mortal son of Asopus, who leads the men of Alalcomene, Itone, Midea, Arne, Aulida, Graea, Plataea
, Pleteon, and Anthedon
. This Hypseus is slain by Capaneus
.
, the first earth-born king of Sicyonian land, Asopus, said to be son of Poseidon by Celusa (this Celusa otherwise unknown but possibly identical to Pero mentioned above?), discovered for him the river called Asopus and gave it his name. Diodorus Siculus
(4,72) similarly presents Asopus (here son of Oceanus and Tethys) as a settler in Phlius
and wife of Metope daughter of Ladon
, presumably here and elsewhere the Arcadian river Ladon.
Pausanias (2.15.3) mentions his daughter Nemea
, eponym for the region of the same name (possibly the mother of Archemorus in Aeschylus
' lost play Nemea). Pausanias (5.22.1) and Diodorus Siculus (4.73.1) also mention a daughter Harpina
and state that according to the traditions of the Elean
s and Phliasians Ares lay with her in the city of Pisa
and she bore him Oenomaus
who Pausanias says (6.21.6) founded the city of Harpina named after her, not far from the river Harpinates.
Apollodorus
(2.1.3) refers to Ismene daughter of Asopus who was wife of Argus
to whom she bore Iasus
, the father of Io
.
and Thebe, here the youngest daughters of Boeotian Asopus by Metope who came from Stymphalia in Arcadia
. Both are abducted by Zeus, one carried to the island of Oenone
later to be named Aegina and the other to Dirce
's water to be queen there.
Corinna
, Pindar's contemporary, in a damaged fragment, mentions nine daughters of Boeotian Asopus: Aegina
, Thebe, and Plataea abducted by Zeus; Corcyra, Salamis
, and Euboea
abducted by Poseidon
; Sinope
and Thespia (who has been dealt with above) abducted by Apollo
; and Tanagra
abducted by Hermes
. Asopus cannot discover what has become of them until the seer Acraephen (otherwise unknown) tells him that Eros and Aphrodite
persuaded the four gods to come secretly to his house and steal his nine daughters. He advises Asopus to yield to the immortals and cease grieving since he is father-in-law to gods. This hints that perhaps, for Corinna, Asopus himself is not a god. Asopus takes Acraephen's advice.
Of these daughters, Thebe, Plataea, Thespia and Tanagra are properly Boeotian. Euboea fits reasonably into the Boeotian sphere but Salamis and Aegina are regions that would perhaps fit better with the Phliasian Asopus. Korkyra (Corfu
) is definitely Corinthian rather than Boeotian. Sinope is surely the colony of Sinope on the Black Sea (originally founded from Miletus).
It is notable that tradition as it comes down to us does not record any children arising from a union of gods with Thebe, Plataea, Thespia or Tanagra and only Diodorus (4.72.1) mentions the otherwise unknown sons Phaiax, son of Poseidon by Corcyra, and Syrus sprung from Apollo by Sinope and that this child of Sinope is opposed by a conflicting tradition that Sinope
tricked Zeus, Apollo and Halys
and remained a virgin.
Later texts mostly speak of Zeus' abduction of Aegina, presented as a solitary abduction. Asopus is often clearly the Phliasian Asopus (so indicated by Pherecydes
) but not always so. Asopus chases after Zeus and his daughter until Zeus turns upon him and strikes him with a thunderbolt, whence ever after Asopus is lame and flows very slowly, a feature ascribed to both the Boeotian and Phliasian Asopus. In these tales Asopus discovers the truth about the abduction from Sisyphus
, King of Corinth
in return for creating a spring on the Corinth
ian Acropolis
. This spring, according to Pausanias (2.5.1) was behind the temple to Aphrodite
and people said its water was the same as that of the spring Peirene, the water in the city flowing from it underground.
Diodorus Siculus
(4.72) who, as mentioned, places his Asopus in Phlius, gives him twelve daughters. Diodorus' list omits the Plataea and Boeotia included by Corinna's list of nine daughters. But it introduces Chalcis
which was the chief city of Boeotia and may stand for Boeotia. To make up the twelve Diodorus' list also adds Peirene (the famous spring in Corinth), Cleone (possible eponym of a small city of Cleonae on the road from Corinth to Argos
according to Pausanias [2.15.1]), Ornia (otherwise totally unknown), and Asopis. But Asopis may mean Asopian and be an epithet for one of the other known daughters. Ovid
in his Metamorphoses
twice (6.113; 7.615) calls Aegina by the name Asopis. Indeed in his very next section Diodorus brings in Asopus' daughter Harpina
who has been discussed above.
Apollodorus (3.12.6) claims Asopus had twenty daughters but he provides no list.
Pausanias (2.5.2) mentionins three supposed daughters of Phliasian Asopus named Corcyra, Aegina, and Thebe according to the Phliasians and further notes that the Thebans insist that this Thebe was daughter of the Boeotian Asopus. He mentions no dispute about the others which suggests that in his day the assignment of Aegina to the Phliasian Asopus was generally admitted.
Pausanias (5.22.1) also describes a group sculpture in the sanctuary of Hippodamia
at Olympia
donated by the Phliasians. It included Nemea, Zeus seizing Aegina, Harpina
, Corcyra, Thebe, and Asopus himself. It seems the Phliasians were very insistent that Thebe belonged to their Asopus.
(by Apollodorus) or Pelasgus
(by Diodorus). Nothing else has survived about this Pelagon. Of Isemenus, Diodorus states only that he emigrated to Boeotia and settled near the Boeotian river which was afterwards called Ismenus from his name.
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and one in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. In Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, it was the name of the gods
God (male deity)
A god, as a male deity, contrasts with female deities, or "goddesses". While the term 'goddess' specifically refers to a female deity, the plural 'gods' can be applied to all gods collectively, regardless of gender....
of those rivers.
The rivers in Greece
- Boeotian Asopus, a river of BoeotiaBoeotiaBoeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...
originating on Mt. Cithaeron and flowing through the district of PlataeaPlataeaPlataea or Plataeae was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes. It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persians....
into the Euripus StraitEuripus StraitThe Euripus Strait , is a narrow channel of water separating the Greek island of Euboea in the Aegean Sea from Boeotia in mainland Greece. The strait's principal port is Chalcis on Euboea, located at the strait's narrowest point....
. The Battle of PlataeaBattle of PlataeaThe Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes...
was fought on its banks. It marked the boundary between ThebanThebes, GreeceThebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...
and Plataean territory. According to PausaniasPausanias (geographer)Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
(5.14.3) the Boeotian Asopus can produce the tallest reedReed- Musical instruments :* Single-reed instrument, a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound* Double reed instrument, a woodwind instrument that uses two reeds to produce sound...
s of any river. - Phliasian Asopus, originating in PhliasianPhliusPhlius was a Greek city in the northwestern Argolid, in the Peloponnese, said to be named after the Greek hero, Phlias. Although geographically close to Argos, the city became a Spartan ally and a member of the Peloponnesian League....
territory and flowing through SicyonSicyonSikyon was an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day prefecture of Corinthia...
ian territory into the Gulf of CorinthGulf of CorinthThe Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece...
near Sicyon. Pausanias [2.5.3] mentions that Phliasians and Sicyonians claimed that its source was in fact the PhrygiaPhrygiaIn antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
n and CariaCariaCaria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
n river Maeander that purportedly descended underground where it appeared to enter the sea at MiletusMiletusMiletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
and rose again in the Peloponnesos as Asopus. - Thessalian Asopus, a river originating on Mount OetaMount OetaMount Oeta is a mountain to the south of Central Greece, in Greece, forming a boundary between the valleys of the Spercheius and the Boeotian Cephissus. It is an offshoot of the Pindus range, high. In its eastern portion, called Callidromus, it comes close to the sea, leaving only a narrow...
in ThessalyThessalyThessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
and emptying into the Malian GulfMalian GulfThe Malian or Maliac Gulf is a gulf of the Aegean Sea in the region of Phthiotis in eastern Central Greece. The gulf is named after the ancient Malians who lived on its shores....
. - Trachean Asopus, a river in TrachisTrachisTrachis was a region in ancient Greece. Situated south of the river Spercheios, it was populated by the Malians.Its main town was also called Trachis until 426 BC, when it became Heraclea Trachinia. It is located to the west of Thermopylae. Trachis is located just west of the western-most tip of...
near ThermopylaeThermopylaeThermopylae is a location in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs. "Hot gates" is also "the place of hot springs and cavernous entrances to Hades"....
mentioned by HerodotusHerodotusHerodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
(7.199, 216–17).
The river in Turkey
- Phrygian Asopus, a small river in PhrygiaPhrygiaIn antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
which joins the Lycus RiverLycus (river of Phrygia)Lycus or Lykos was the name of a river in ancient Phrygia, a tributary of the Maeander, which it joins a few km south of Tripolis. It had its sources in the eastern parts of Mount Cadmus Lycus or Lykos was the name of a river in ancient Phrygia, a tributary of the Maeander, which it joins a few...
near Laodicea on the LycusLaodicea on the LycusLaodicea on the Lycus was the ancient metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana , built on the river Lycus , in Anatolia near the modern village of Eskihisar , Denizli Province,...
.
Mythology
As mythological figures the Boeotian river Asopus and the Phliasian river Asopus are much confounded. They are duplicated a second time as supposed mortal kings who gave their names to the corresponding rivers. Indeed, logically, since the children fathered by gods on various daughters of either Boeotian or Phliasian Asopus were mortal in these tales, then the daughters themselves must have been mortal, and therefore either the mother of these daughters (often given as MetopeMetope (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Metope was a river nymph, the daughter of the river Ladon. Her waters were near the town of Stymphalus in the Peloponnesus...
daughter of river Ladon) or their father Asopus must have been mortal, or both of them.
Apollodorus
Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
(3.12.6) informs that the river Asopus was a son of Oceanus
Oceanus
Oceanus ; , Ōkeanós) was a pseudo-geographical feature in classical antiquity, believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the world-ocean, an enormous river encircling the world....
and Tethys
Tethys (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Tethys , daughter of Uranus and Gaia was an archaic Titaness and aquatic sea goddess, invoked in classical Greek poetry but not venerated in cult. Tethys was both sister and wife of Oceanus...
or according to Acusilaus
Acusilaus
Acusilaus of Argos, son of Cabas or Scabras, was a Greek logographer and mythographer who lived in the latter half of the 6th century BC but whose work survives only in fragments and summaries of individual points....
of Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
by Pero
Pero
In Greek mythology, Pero was a daughter of Neleus and Chloris, and the wife of her cousin Bias. Her sons included Areius, Leodocus, and Talaus. The story of Pero is mentioned in Book XI of Homer's Odyssey. Pero's beauty attracted many suitors, but Neleus, her father, refused to give his daughter...
(otherwise unknown to us) or according to yet others of Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
by Eurynome
Eurynome
Eurynomê was the Titan goddess of water-meadows and pasturelands, and one of the elder Oceanides, that is, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys...
, not making it clear whether he knows there is more than one river named Asopus.
Boeotian Asopus
Pausanias (9.1.1) cites Plataean tradition that Asopus was ancient king of that region in succession to King Cithaeron who gave his name to the mountain as King Asopus gave his name to the river and that the city of Plataea was named after Plataea daughter of the river Asopus. Pausanias then oddly comments that he thinks that this eponymous Plataea was daughter of King Asopus rather than the river Asopus.Oroe, a tributary river of Boeotian Asopus is called by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
(9.51.2) and Pausanias (9.4.4) daughter of Asopus. Pausanias says that the Boeotian city of Thespiae was either named from Thespia daughter of Asopus or from Thespius, a descendant of Erechtheus
Erechtheus
Erechtheus in Greek mythology was the name of an archaic king of Athens, the re-founder of the polis and a double at Athens for Poseidon, as "Poseidon Erechtheus"...
who came there from Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. This Thespius is otherwise unknown to us. Finally Antiope
Antiope (mother of Amphion)
In Greek mythology, Antiope was the name of the daughter of the Boeotian river god Asopus, according to Homer; in later sources she is called the daughter of the "nocturnal" king Nycteus of Thebes or, in the Cypria, of Lycurgus, but for Homer her site is purely Boeotian. Her beauty attracted Zeus,...
mother of Amphion and Zethus
Amphion and Zethus
Amphion and Zethus , in ancient Greek mythology, were the twin sons of Zeus by Antiope. They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed the city's walls....
by Zeus is sometimes a daughter of Asopus.
Statius
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the 1st century CE . Besides his poetry in Latin, which include an epic poem, the Thebaid, a collection of occasional poetry, the Silvae, and the unfinished epic, the Achilleid, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory...
' Thebaid tells of the warrior Hypseus, mortal son of Asopus, who leads the men of Alalcomene, Itone, Midea, Arne, Aulida, Graea, Plataea
Plataea
Plataea or Plataeae was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes. It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persians....
, Pleteon, and Anthedon
Anthedon (mythology)
In Greek mythology, there were several people named Anthedon.Anthedon is possibly the father of Glaucus, a sea god – whose mother might have been Alcyone...
. This Hypseus is slain by Capaneus
Capaneus
In Greek mythology, Capaneus was a son of Hipponous and either Astynome or Laodice , and husband of Evadne, with whom he fathered Sthenelus. Some call his wife Ianeira....
.
Phliasian Asopus
Pausanias (1.12.4) writes that during the reign of ArasAras
Aras may refer to:*Aras , an autochthon in Greek mythology, father of Araethyrea and Aoris*ARAS, the Ascending Reticular Activating System*ARAS, the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism...
, the first earth-born king of Sicyonian land, Asopus, said to be son of Poseidon by Celusa (this Celusa otherwise unknown but possibly identical to Pero mentioned above?), discovered for him the river called Asopus and gave it his name. Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
(4,72) similarly presents Asopus (here son of Oceanus and Tethys) as a settler in Phlius
Phlius
Phlius was a Greek city in the northwestern Argolid, in the Peloponnese, said to be named after the Greek hero, Phlias. Although geographically close to Argos, the city became a Spartan ally and a member of the Peloponnesian League....
and wife of Metope daughter of Ladon
Ladon
Ladon may refer to:*Ladon , one of the dragons in Greek mythology*Ladon in Arcadia, Greece*Ladon, Loiret, a commune in the Loiret département of France*Ladon, the dragon god in the video game Breath of Fire III...
, presumably here and elsewhere the Arcadian river Ladon.
Pausanias (2.15.3) mentions his daughter Nemea
Nemea
Nemea is an ancient site near the head of the valley of the River Elissos in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. Formerly part of the territory of Cleonae in Argolis, it is today part of the prefecture of Corinthia...
, eponym for the region of the same name (possibly the mother of Archemorus in Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
' lost play Nemea). Pausanias (5.22.1) and Diodorus Siculus (4.73.1) also mention a daughter Harpina
Harpina
In Greek mythology, Harpina was a Naiad nymph and daughter of Phliasian Asopus and of Metope. Pausanias and Diodorus Siculus mention Harpina and state that, according to the tradition of the Eleans and Phliasians, Ares mated with her in the city of Pisa and she bore him Oenomaus, the king of Pisa...
and state that according to the traditions of the Elean
Elis
Elis, or Eleia is an ancient district that corresponds with the modern Elis peripheral unit...
s and Phliasians Ares lay with her in the city of Pisa
Pisa (Greece)
Pisa was the name of an ancient town in the western Peloponnese, Greece. The area controlled by Pisa was called Pisatis, which included Olympia, the site of the Ancient Olympic Games. Pisa and Pisatis were subjugated by Elis in 572 BC. Currently, it is a village within the municipality of Olympia...
and she bore him Oenomaus
Oenomaus
In Greek mythology, King Oenomaus of Pisa, the father of Hippodamia, was the son of Ares, either by the naiad Harpina or by Sterope, one of the Pleiades, whom some identify as his consort instead...
who Pausanias says (6.21.6) founded the city of Harpina named after her, not far from the river Harpinates.
Apollodorus
Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
(2.1.3) refers to Ismene daughter of Asopus who was wife of Argus
ARGUS
ARGUS, all capitalized, may refer to:* ARGUS , a particle physics experiment that ran at DESY* ARGUS distribution, a function used in particle physics named after the above experiment...
to whom she bore Iasus
Iasus
In Greek mythology, Iasus or Iasius was the name of several individuals:*Iasus, king of Argos. His genealogy is confused; according to different sources, he was:**Son of Phoroneus, brother of Agenor and Pelasgus...
, the father of Io
Io (mythology)
Io was, in Greek mythology, a priestess of Hera in Argos, a nymph who was seduced by Zeus, who changed her into a heifer to escape detection. His wife Hera set ever-watchful Argus Panoptes to guard her, but Hermes was sent to distract the guardian and slay him...
.
Daughters of Asopus (Asopides)
We find first in Pindar's odes (Nem 8.6–12; Is 8.17–23; Paian 6.134–40) the sisters, AeginaAegina (mythology)
Aegina was a figure of Greek mythology, the nymph of the island that bears her name, Aegina, lying in the Saronic Gulf between Attica and the Peloponnesos. The archaic Temple of Aphaea, the "Invisible Goddess", on the island was later subsumed by the cult of Athena...
and Thebe, here the youngest daughters of Boeotian Asopus by Metope who came from Stymphalia in Arcadia
Arcadia
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
. Both are abducted by Zeus, one carried to the island of Oenone
Oenone
In Greek mythology, Oenone was the first wife of Paris of Troy, whom he abandoned for the queen Helen of Sparta.Oenone was a mountain nymph on Mount Ida in Phrygia, a mountain associated with the Mother Goddess Cybele, alternatively Rhea. Her father was Cebren, a river-god...
later to be named Aegina and the other to Dirce
Dirce
Dirce was the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology, and aunt to Antiope whom Zeus impregnated. Antiope fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus on the way...
's water to be queen there.
Corinna
Corinna
Corinna or Korinna was an Ancient Greek poet, traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC. According to ancient sources such as Plutarch and Pausanias, she came from Tanagra in Boeotia, where she was a teacher and rival to the better-known Theban poet Pindar...
, Pindar's contemporary, in a damaged fragment, mentions nine daughters of Boeotian Asopus: Aegina
Aegina (mythology)
Aegina was a figure of Greek mythology, the nymph of the island that bears her name, Aegina, lying in the Saronic Gulf between Attica and the Peloponnesos. The archaic Temple of Aphaea, the "Invisible Goddess", on the island was later subsumed by the cult of Athena...
, Thebe, and Plataea abducted by Zeus; Corcyra, Salamis
Salamis (mythology)
Salamis was a nymph in Greek mythology, the daughter of the river god Asopus and Metope, daughter of the Ladon, another river god. She was carried away by Poseidon to the island which was named after her, whereupon she bore the god a son Cychreus who became king of the island....
, and Euboea
Euboea (mythology)
Euboea is the name of several women in Greek mythology.#Euboea, a Naiad, daughter of the Boeotian river-god Asopus and of Metope. Poseidon abducted her. The island of Euboea was given her name....
abducted by Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
; Sinope
Sinope
Sinope may refer to:*Sinop, Turkey, a city on the Black Sea, historically known as Sinope** Battle of Sinop, 1853 naval battle in the Sinop port*Sinope , in Greek mythology, daughter of Asopus*Sinope , a moon of the planet Jupiter...
and Thespia (who has been dealt with above) abducted by Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
; and Tanagra
Tanagra
Tanagra is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari. It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it...
abducted by Hermes
Hermes
Hermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...
. Asopus cannot discover what has become of them until the seer Acraephen (otherwise unknown) tells him that Eros and Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
persuaded the four gods to come secretly to his house and steal his nine daughters. He advises Asopus to yield to the immortals and cease grieving since he is father-in-law to gods. This hints that perhaps, for Corinna, Asopus himself is not a god. Asopus takes Acraephen's advice.
Of these daughters, Thebe, Plataea, Thespia and Tanagra are properly Boeotian. Euboea fits reasonably into the Boeotian sphere but Salamis and Aegina are regions that would perhaps fit better with the Phliasian Asopus. Korkyra (Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
) is definitely Corinthian rather than Boeotian. Sinope is surely the colony of Sinope on the Black Sea (originally founded from Miletus).
It is notable that tradition as it comes down to us does not record any children arising from a union of gods with Thebe, Plataea, Thespia or Tanagra and only Diodorus (4.72.1) mentions the otherwise unknown sons Phaiax, son of Poseidon by Corcyra, and Syrus sprung from Apollo by Sinope and that this child of Sinope is opposed by a conflicting tradition that Sinope
Sinope (mythology)
In Greek Mythology, Sinope was one of the daughters of Asopus and thought to be an eponym of the city Sinope on the Black Sea.According to Corinna and Diodorus Siculus, Sinope was seized by the god Apollo and carried over to the place where later stood the city honouring her name...
tricked Zeus, Apollo and Halys
Halys
Halys may refer to:* The Halys River in Anatolia , Turkish Kızılırmak .* In the Aeneid, Halys is a Trojan who defends Aeneas' camp from a Rutulian attack. He is killed by Turnus....
and remained a virgin.
Later texts mostly speak of Zeus' abduction of Aegina, presented as a solitary abduction. Asopus is often clearly the Phliasian Asopus (so indicated by Pherecydes
Pherecydes
Pherecydes was the name of:*Pherecydes of Syros, a pre-Socratic philosopher and author from the island of Syros, by some believed to have influenced Pythagoras...
) but not always so. Asopus chases after Zeus and his daughter until Zeus turns upon him and strikes him with a thunderbolt, whence ever after Asopus is lame and flows very slowly, a feature ascribed to both the Boeotian and Phliasian Asopus. In these tales Asopus discovers the truth about the abduction from Sisyphus
Sisyphus
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...
, King of Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
in return for creating a spring on the Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
ian Acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
. This spring, according to Pausanias (2.5.1) was behind the temple to Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
and people said its water was the same as that of the spring Peirene, the water in the city flowing from it underground.
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
(4.72) who, as mentioned, places his Asopus in Phlius, gives him twelve daughters. Diodorus' list omits the Plataea and Boeotia included by Corinna's list of nine daughters. But it introduces Chalcis
Chalcis
Chalcis or Chalkida , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός , though there is no trace of any mines in the area...
which was the chief city of Boeotia and may stand for Boeotia. To make up the twelve Diodorus' list also adds Peirene (the famous spring in Corinth), Cleone (possible eponym of a small city of Cleonae on the road from Corinth to Argos
Argos
Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...
according to Pausanias [2.15.1]), Ornia (otherwise totally unknown), and Asopis. But Asopis may mean Asopian and be an epithet for one of the other known daughters. Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
in his Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)
Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Completed in AD 8, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Golden Age Latin literature...
twice (6.113; 7.615) calls Aegina by the name Asopis. Indeed in his very next section Diodorus brings in Asopus' daughter Harpina
Harpina
In Greek mythology, Harpina was a Naiad nymph and daughter of Phliasian Asopus and of Metope. Pausanias and Diodorus Siculus mention Harpina and state that, according to the tradition of the Eleans and Phliasians, Ares mated with her in the city of Pisa and she bore him Oenomaus, the king of Pisa...
who has been discussed above.
Apollodorus (3.12.6) claims Asopus had twenty daughters but he provides no list.
Pausanias (2.5.2) mentionins three supposed daughters of Phliasian Asopus named Corcyra, Aegina, and Thebe according to the Phliasians and further notes that the Thebans insist that this Thebe was daughter of the Boeotian Asopus. He mentions no dispute about the others which suggests that in his day the assignment of Aegina to the Phliasian Asopus was generally admitted.
Pausanias (5.22.1) also describes a group sculpture in the sanctuary of Hippodamia
Hippodamia
Hippodamia was a daughter of King Oenomaus and wife of Pelops with whom her offspring were Thyestes, Atreus, Pittheus, Alcathous, Troezen, Hippalcimus, Copreus, Astydameia, Nicippe, Eurydice and others....
at Olympia
Olympia, Greece
Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every Olympiad , the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 BC...
donated by the Phliasians. It included Nemea, Zeus seizing Aegina, Harpina
Harpina
In Greek mythology, Harpina was a Naiad nymph and daughter of Phliasian Asopus and of Metope. Pausanias and Diodorus Siculus mention Harpina and state that, according to the tradition of the Eleans and Phliasians, Ares mated with her in the city of Pisa and she bore him Oenomaus, the king of Pisa...
, Corcyra, Thebe, and Asopus himself. It seems the Phliasians were very insistent that Thebe belonged to their Asopus.
Sons of Asopus
Both Apollodrus and Diodorus also bring in two sons of Asopus, the first named Ismenus and the second named PelagonPelagon
There are several figures named Pelagon in Greek mythology.# Pelagon, the King of Phocis who gives Cadmus the cow that will guide him to Boeotia....
(by Apollodorus) or Pelasgus
Pelasgus
In Greek mythology, Pelasgus was the eponymous ancestor of the Pelasgians, the mythical inhabitants of Greece who established the worship of the Dodonaean Zeus, Hephaestus, the Cabeiri, and other divinities. In the different parts of the country once occupied by Pelasgians, there existed...
(by Diodorus). Nothing else has survived about this Pelagon. Of Isemenus, Diodorus states only that he emigrated to Boeotia and settled near the Boeotian river which was afterwards called Ismenus from his name.
External links
- Theoi Project: Okeanos: Asopos
- Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Asopus"
- http://www.hellenjgeosci.geol.uoa.gr/43/GEOL%2043%20PAGES%2057-66.pdf (Hexavalent chromium and other toxic elements in natural waters in the Thiva – Tanagra – Malakasa Basin, Greece)
- http://uoa.academia.edu/CharalamposVasilatos/Papers#d75958 (HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM AND OTHER TOXIC METALS IN GROUNDWATERS OF THE ASOPOS VALLEY (ATTICA), GREECE Ch. Vasilatos, I. Megremi, M. Economou-Eliopoulos & I. Mitsis in 26th European Conference of the Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 2008)
- http://uoa.academia.edu/CharalamposVasilatos/Papers/167110/Geochemical-characteristics-of-natural-waters-contaminated-by-hexavalent-chromium--in-Eastern-Sterea-Hellas--Greece (GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL WATERS CONTAMINATED BY HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM, IN EASTERN STEREA HELLAS, GREECE”, by Ch. Vasilatos, I. Megremi, M. Economou-Eliopoulos, 2010 In: CHRISTOFIDES, G., KANTIRANIS, N., KOSTOPOULOS, D.S., CHATZIPETROS A.A., (eds), Scientiic Annales, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Sp. Vol. 99, p. 347-353, Proceedings of the XIX Congress of the Carpathian Balkan Geological Association.)